Sunday, March 31, 2013

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Yes brick and brass [and not the cool dark vintage brass that is popular right now]

Luckily the brass cover was removable (unlike the one on East Coast Creative) - that was tossed and they simply just purchased a new one from Crate and Barrel.

We followed the DIY Tutorial on the blog exactly - doing 2 parts water to 1 part of paint - my parent's fireplace had a dark grey grout in-between the brick and the blog had a white grout so we needed a thicker paint to cover!

After taping everything off and putting down drop cloths we went over the whole fire place with the paint using a roller and went back with a large paint brush for the second coat. My mom painted the top two rows of brick with a dark grey paint to help them stand out.

Almost done:

And the final result!

Doesn't it look SO much better!?

AND the best part about it is that the whole project took less than two hours start to finish! Woohoo!

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

This past few months, which feels like forever, I have been working on little things here and there to reorganize and redecorate our house because its not quite right. I almost have our bathroom complete - I just need another piece of decor for the wall to finish it off! We have a TINY bathroom, our house was built in the 50's and the counter space is very limited. I got tired of seeing this:

Then one night I was laying in bed - brilliant ideas always come at that time right??

And I thought I should just get nice glass dispensers and customize them so I know which soap is which!

**Cue the Martha Stewart Etching Cream**

I decided to go with the Martha Etching Cream even though it was still ($13 and twice the cost of the other brand after my 50% off coupon) BUT Martha never disappoints!

I also picked up two matching glass dispensers in different sizes from target - they had a light turquoise color to them which I liked however I learned after I started this process that is a coating on the outside not colored glass SO I had to do the etching cream twice. The first time to remove the coating and the second to etch the glass.

I used my Silhouette Machine to cut out my lettering of [hand] and [face]:

Then I applied the cream for about 30 minutes the first time and had to remove it and scrape off the lifting coating an then reapplied for another 30.

Then cleaned off again and here is the result:

I am super happy with them and Z likes them too! They give our soaps a home and always look neat!

Friday, March 15, 2013

This past month I signed up for Birchbox - it is a $10 a month fee and they send you a mini box with all sorts of beauty samples and new products to try. Annnnd my first one arrived a few days ago and I am in love!!

This bright pink box was in our mail box:

I was super excited to open it up and see what was inside:

There was a little card explaining what its contents were:

And TaDa:

It came with a eye shadow primer, a break out cream, headband, nail file, and shave cream. Was very worth the $10! I cannot wait until next month!

PS - they have a few week wait but if you want an invite I can send you one - just leave your email or email me with it on the button above!

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

It seems that I have been on a quilt making kick the past few months! The most recent one being a herringbone baby quilt for my sister, it is her first baby and the first baby in our family so I wanted to make something special and absolutely LOVE the herringbone/chevron quilts. [I learned that the difference is when the color/pattern is broken up- if the row was all one color it would be chevron - who knew?!]